Latest / Conspiracy! The Show / The Death of Paul Wellstone Part One: Life and Death

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The Death of Paul Wellstone Part One: Life and Death · Conspiracy! The Show

0:10
Speaker 1: Wait, I'm a checkup. Hey everybody, welcome to Conspiracy The Show.
0:34
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Adam Todd Brown joining me as co
0:37
Speaker 1: host this week, my favorite co host of all no
0:40
Speaker 1: co host. I'm actually going it alone this week, but
0:43
Speaker 1: not really, because you're here with me. Who you? That's who?
0:47
Speaker 1: And let me tell you we are about to go
0:50
Speaker 1: on a journey. This was initially supposed to be a
0:53
Speaker 1: single solo episode, one of those banned media report things
0:58
Speaker 1: that I sometimes do. In this case, it was to
1:01
Speaker 1: be about a book called American Assassination, the strange death
1:06
Speaker 1: of Senator Paul Wellstone, and that is still what we're
1:09
Speaker 1: talking about today and probably for the next few episodes,
1:14
Speaker 1: for reasons that will be obvious later. There's no way
1:17
Speaker 1: this can just be one episode. There are a lot
1:20
Speaker 1: of twists and turns and questions and possibilities, and honestly,
1:26
Speaker 1: I'm still not sure what to think about all of it,
1:30
Speaker 1: but I can promise you it's gonna get weird, though.
1:32
Speaker 1: So let's get to it. The first and most obvious question,
1:35
Speaker 1: who was Paul Wellstone? If you're unfamiliar, he was a
1:39
Speaker 1: US Senator from Minnesota who served from nineteen ninety one
1:44
Speaker 1: until his untimely death in two thousand and two. He
1:47
Speaker 1: was often called the conscience of the Senate. After his death,
1:51
Speaker 1: Republicans spent years trying to undo the legitimately good and
1:56
Speaker 1: beneficial things he did during his career. Point if you're
2:01
Speaker 1: at all familiar with the Supreme Court's twenty ten Citizens
2:05
Speaker 1: United decision, you know it was an objectively bad thing
2:08
Speaker 1: that cleared the way for corporations and labor unions to
2:12
Speaker 1: run attack ads against political candidates right up until the
2:16
Speaker 1: day of the election, with no limits on how much
2:19
Speaker 1: money they can spend doing it. And what that argument
2:22
Speaker 1: centered around in the Supreme Court was the two thousand
2:25
Speaker 1: and two Bipartisan Campaign Reform Bill, and more specifically, the
2:30
Speaker 1: Wellstone Amendment, which, as the name implies, was written by
2:34
Speaker 1: Paul Wellstone. Under that amendment, groups like the NRA or
2:39
Speaker 1: the Sierra Club couldn't run issue ads that attack or
2:43
Speaker 1: endorse a candidate within thirty days of a primary or
2:47
Speaker 1: within sixty days of an election. And that sounds nice, right, Well,
2:51
Speaker 1: Unfortunately the Supreme Court decided it violated the First Amendment
2:55
Speaker 1: because corporations are people too. But still, it's a good
2:58
Speaker 1: indicator that Wellstone's heart was in the right place. If
3:02
Speaker 1: you actually support the idea of corporate money influencing our
3:06
Speaker 1: elections with no limits or regulations, you are exactly the
3:10
Speaker 1: government boot liquor you think you aren't. But his influence
3:14
Speaker 1: on American politics is still evident on both sides of
3:17
Speaker 1: the aisle. When Amy Klobashar briefly campaigned for president, she
3:21
Speaker 1: made waves on social media when people picked up on
3:25
Speaker 1: the fact that her campaign colors looked a whole lot
3:28
Speaker 1: like the Hidden Valley ranch dressing label. Was that a
3:31
Speaker 1: subliminal reference to her Midwest constituents fanatical love of ranch dressing. No,
3:37
Speaker 1: she chose green because it was a reference to one
3:40
Speaker 1: of her political mentors, Paul Wellstone. When he first ran
3:44
Speaker 1: for Senate in nineteen ninety, he was facing off against
3:47
Speaker 1: a longtime Republican incumbent named Rudy Boschwitz, who also happened
3:52
Speaker 1: to be a prolific fundraiser, and without money or name
3:56
Speaker 1: recognition on his side, Wellstone had to get creative, and
4:00
Speaker 1: one of the things he did for extra attention was
4:03
Speaker 1: to travel to all of his campaign stops in a
4:06
Speaker 1: big green school bus, and it worked. Despite being widely
4:10
Speaker 1: considered an underdog and being outspent by a margin of
4:14
Speaker 1: seven to one. Wellstone became the only challenger in the
4:18
Speaker 1: country to defeat an incumbent senator in nineteen ninety. He
4:23
Speaker 1: beat Boschwitz again in a nineteen ninety six rematch to
4:27
Speaker 1: claim his second term as a US Senator. And one
4:31
Speaker 1: of the things Paul Wellstone was known for throughout his
4:35
Speaker 1: career was being one of the most vocal and effective
4:38
Speaker 1: opponents of United States foreign policy in the Middle East,
4:43
Speaker 1: starting from way back in nineteen ninety one, when nine
4:46
Speaker 1: days after being sworn in for his first term as senator,
4:50
Speaker 1: he voted against a resolution authorizing US military force against Iraq,
4:55
Speaker 1: something that led to him receiving death threats just two
4:59
Speaker 1: weeks into his first term. Those threats were so intense
5:04
Speaker 1: they were eventually investigated by the FBI, but he was
5:07
Speaker 1: already familiar to the FBI well before that. Files that
5:11
Speaker 1: were made public in twenty ten that we will get
5:14
Speaker 1: into in a later episode revealed that the FBI had
5:17
Speaker 1: been tracking Paul Wellstone since nineteen seventy one, when he
5:23
Speaker 1: was a twenty five year old college professor who opposed
5:26
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War. The FBI is going to be a
5:29
Speaker 1: very important player in these episodes. But again, we'll get
5:33
Speaker 1: back to them later. For now, let's fast forward to
5:36
Speaker 1: two thousand and two. Paul Wellstone had repeatedly promised that
5:40
Speaker 1: he'd only served two terms in the Senate. Minnesota, at
5:43
Speaker 1: least at the time very notoriously disliked career politicians. I
5:49
Speaker 1: mean that shouldn't come as a surprise. They elected Jesse
5:52
Speaker 1: Ventura to be their governor after all, and Wellstone came
5:57
Speaker 1: into office given off lots of not a career politician energy.
6:02
Speaker 1: But by two thousand and two it became apparent that
6:05
Speaker 1: he was going to seek that third term in office.
6:09
Speaker 1: There was a Republican administration that he disagreed with vehemently
6:13
Speaker 1: in the White House, and Democrats held a very slim
6:17
Speaker 1: margin in the Senate. Now is not the time for
6:20
Speaker 1: me to walk away, he was quoted as saying at
6:24
Speaker 1: the time, and Republicans saw this change of course by
6:28
Speaker 1: Wellstone as an opportunity. He had one of the most
6:32
Speaker 1: liberal voting records in the Senate, fighting the Bush administration
6:35
Speaker 1: over everything from the environment to foreign policy to bankruptcy
6:40
Speaker 1: legislation everything in between. But now Paul Wellstone had a
6:44
Speaker 1: credibility problem, and that made his campaign vulnerable. Here's a
6:48
Speaker 1: quote from Lawrence Jacobs, a political scientist at the University
6:52
Speaker 1: of Minnesota, speaking to The New York Times back when
6:56
Speaker 1: the campaign was happening. Wellstone has always portrayed himself as
6:59
Speaker 1: the commitment candidate. Even though you don't agree with me,
7:03
Speaker 1: you can trust me. I think his decision to go
7:05
Speaker 1: back on the two term pledge really eats away at
7:08
Speaker 1: that end. Quote. And the Bush Cheney machine, they were
7:12
Speaker 1: so excited about this they even handpicked the Republican who
7:17
Speaker 1: would challenge Paul Wellstone, and that was Saint Paul Mayer
7:21
Speaker 1: and former Democrat Norm Coleman. Dick Cheney actually talked another
7:26
Speaker 1: candidate out of running so Coleman could run in his place.
7:30
Speaker 1: That's how much the Republicans valued this Senate seat, and
7:35
Speaker 1: things seemed to be breaking their way. Coleman held a
7:38
Speaker 1: slight lead in both polling and fundraising Throughout most of
7:42
Speaker 1: the campaign. It seemed like well Stone's broken promise about
7:46
Speaker 1: running for a third term really was going to cost
7:49
Speaker 1: him his Senate seat. But then something remarkable happened. On
7:53
Speaker 1: October tenth, two thousand and two, a vote was held
7:56
Speaker 1: on the Bush administration's authorization of the U use of
8:00
Speaker 1: force against Iraq, and Wellstone voted against it. That made
8:05
Speaker 1: him one of only eleven senators, all Democrats, by the way,
8:09
Speaker 1: who voted against both the nineteen ninety one and two
8:13
Speaker 1: thousand and two wars in Iraq. It also gave him
8:16
Speaker 1: an unexpected surge in the polls, despite reportedly going home
8:21
Speaker 1: the night after the vote and telling his wife Sheila
8:24
Speaker 1: that he'd just cost himself the election. Polls conducted the
8:28
Speaker 1: next day showed Wellstone now held a forty seven percent
8:32
Speaker 1: to forty one percent lead over Norm Coleman. Turns out
8:36
Speaker 1: his concerns were incorrect. Voting against the second war in
8:40
Speaker 1: Iraq gave his campaign new life. Sadly, Paul Wellstone would
8:46
Speaker 1: not live to see the outcome of that election. At
8:49
Speaker 1: ten twenty two am on October twenty fifth, two thousand
8:52
Speaker 1: and two, near Eveleth, Minnesota, Senator Wellstone, his wife, his daughter,
8:58
Speaker 1: three staff members, and two pilots were killed when the
9:03
Speaker 1: Beechcraft king Air, A one hundred twin engine airplane they
9:08
Speaker 1: were flying in crashed. The Senator and his family and
9:11
Speaker 1: staff were traveling to Evelyth for the funeral of Martin Rukevina,
9:16
Speaker 1: a steel worker whose son Tom served in the Minnesota
9:19
Speaker 1: House of Representatives. Thoughts and prayers from all sides of
9:22
Speaker 1: the aisle started pouring in immediately. Republican Senator Phil Graham
9:26
Speaker 1: of Texas called Wellstone a man of conviction who never
9:31
Speaker 1: swayed from his beliefs, even when he was fighting a
9:34
Speaker 1: lonely battle. Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts said all
9:38
Speaker 1: of us who knew Paul Wellstone are devastated today. We
9:42
Speaker 1: will miss you, Paul, and we will never forget you.
9:45
Speaker 1: And Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura added, today the state of
9:49
Speaker 1: Minnesota has suffered a deep and penetrating loss. Vince McMahon.
9:54
Speaker 1: Something else started circulating immediately, news reports in all the
9:59
Speaker 1: major outl let's claiming that Wellstone's plane was flying in
10:03
Speaker 1: severely inclement weather. CNN, Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC, Local
10:11
Speaker 1: Minnesota News, all the outlets reporting the same thing, terrible weather.
10:17
Speaker 1: I want to bring up one of those articles in particular.
10:20
Speaker 1: It's called NTSB studies Weather in Wellstone crash. It was
10:25
Speaker 1: posted on CNN dot com on October twenty eighth, two
10:28
Speaker 1: thousand and two. Just a few days after the crash.
10:31
Speaker 1: First off, let's read the second paragraph of the article.
10:34
Speaker 1: Investigators have discovered the aircraft was off course, heading south
10:39
Speaker 1: and away from the runway when it crashed Friday morning.
10:42
Speaker 1: Pilots were reporting light icing conditions in the area, and
10:46
Speaker 1: investigators are examining whether de icing equipment on the plane
10:50
Speaker 1: was working properly, said Carol Karmody, the NTSB's acting chairwoman,
10:56
Speaker 1: the NTSB, of course, being the National Transportation Safety Board.
11:00
Speaker 1: And for starters, remember that name, Carol Krmody. She's going
11:04
Speaker 1: to come up a lot over the course of this. Also,
11:07
Speaker 1: that statement in and of itself, seemingly normal as it
11:11
Speaker 1: may be, is actually immediately odd. On account of this
11:15
Speaker 1: statement from the NTSB website. Here goes at least once
11:19
Speaker 1: daily during the onseen phase of an investigation, one of
11:23
Speaker 1: the five members of the safety board itself, who accompanies
11:26
Speaker 1: the team, briefs the media on the latest factual information
11:31
Speaker 1: developed by the team, while a career investigator runs the
11:34
Speaker 1: inquiry as investigator in charge. The board member is the
11:38
Speaker 1: primary spokesperson for the investigation. A public affairs officer also
11:42
Speaker 1: maintains contact with the media. Confirmed factual information is released.
11:49
Speaker 1: There is no speculation over cause. Did you catch that
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Speaker 1: last sentence? No speculation over cause. But right here in
11:58
Speaker 1: the second paragraph of article you can still read online,
12:02
Speaker 1: is NTSB Acting chairwoman Carol Carmody speculating a way that
12:08
Speaker 1: maybe the de icing equipment was the problem in this crash.
12:11
Speaker 1: And there are a couple more really important quotes in
12:14
Speaker 1: that CNN article. Here's one of them. In addition, the
12:17
Speaker 1: Federal Aviation Administration found a high frequency radio beacon used
12:23
Speaker 1: to guide aircraft toward the airport was slightly out of tolerance,
12:28
Speaker 1: Carmody said, but additional tests were being conducted, and we
12:32
Speaker 1: don't know how significant that is. Not only is that
12:35
Speaker 1: more speculation, but it's an extremely important piece of speculation.
12:40
Speaker 1: Write it down. Here comes another. This is also a
12:42
Speaker 1: quote from the article. NTSB investigator Robert Benson said, pilots
12:48
Speaker 1: can tell if the system known as VR has a
12:51
Speaker 1: significant malfunction, if it becomes grossly out of tolerance dangerous,
12:57
Speaker 1: then it shuts itself down. The pilots can tell that
13:00
Speaker 1: and they go someplace else. It wasn't to that state yet.
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Speaker 1: So for one thing, it's weird that we have two
13:07
Speaker 1: members of the NTSB both saying the VR system might
13:11
Speaker 1: have had something to do with it, and then also
13:13
Speaker 1: saying in the span of the same article that the
13:16
Speaker 1: pilots would know if there was something wrong with the
13:18
Speaker 1: VR system and they would do something about it. But
13:20
Speaker 1: that VR system is integral to both the official NTSB
13:26
Speaker 1: report about the crash, which would arrive months later, and
13:30
Speaker 1: also the conspiracy theories that surround the crash. So go
13:34
Speaker 1: ahead and toss it in your memory palace now it
13:37
Speaker 1: will come up again soon. And now here's another interesting
13:40
Speaker 1: quote from another article that you can still read right
13:43
Speaker 1: now online. On October twenty fifth, two thousand and two,
13:47
Speaker 1: the Associated Press posted an article aptly titled Senator Wellstone
13:51
Speaker 1: dies in plane crash, which included this quote. At the site,
13:56
Speaker 1: FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said there was no inn indication
14:00
Speaker 1: the crash was related to terrorism. Now, please note this
14:04
Speaker 1: article went up on October twenty fifth, that is the
14:08
Speaker 1: day of the crash. And here's the thing. How do
14:11
Speaker 1: you know. I get that the FBI is good at
14:14
Speaker 1: their job, But that is a shockingly short turnaround time
14:19
Speaker 1: to come to a conclusion of that magnitude, Like just
14:23
Speaker 1: even on the surface that's weird. One would think in
14:25
Speaker 1: a case as high profile as this, authorities would not
14:29
Speaker 1: want to jump to conclusions in the media right away.
14:32
Speaker 1: But it's also suspect for reasons beyond that, and we'll
14:36
Speaker 1: get to them. But before we do, it's worth noting
14:39
Speaker 1: that shortly after the crash, also acting NTSB chairwoman Carol
14:44
Speaker 1: Carmody announced the plane Whilstone was flying in was equipped
14:49
Speaker 1: with a cockpit voice recorder and that finding it would
14:53
Speaker 1: be priority number one. All of this is suspicious. Everything
14:57
Speaker 1: I've said to this point, as normal as some of
15:00
Speaker 1: it may be, is all weird. Let's talk about why.
15:04
Speaker 1: Up First, those weather reports regarding the inclement weather. What
15:09
Speaker 1: none of those stories bothered to report is that planes
15:12
Speaker 1: were taking off and landing in that exact same weather
15:16
Speaker 1: at that same airport before and after the crash. Automated
15:20
Speaker 1: instruments at Eveleth Airport at ten fourteen am, which is
15:25
Speaker 1: right before the crash, reported the following conditions light snow, calm, wind,
15:31
Speaker 1: visibility of three miles, which you might recognize as not
15:34
Speaker 1: being particularly inclement weather. But the most telling example of
15:39
Speaker 1: why the weather reports were suspicious involved the actions of
15:43
Speaker 1: a guy named Gary Ulman, who owned an aviation company
15:46
Speaker 1: based out of Eveleth Airport. After hearing that Wellstone's plane
15:50
Speaker 1: failed to arrive, he immediately took off in a plane
15:54
Speaker 1: of his own to look for the wreckage so as
15:57
Speaker 1: to alert rescue teams and medical person to its location. He,
16:02
Speaker 1: along with other local pilots who flew into Evelyth around
16:05
Speaker 1: the same time, all confirmed that the weather wasn't that bad,
16:10
Speaker 1: visibility was well above the one mile minimum required to
16:14
Speaker 1: safely land, and that icing wasn't any more extreme than normal. Nevertheless,
16:20
Speaker 1: a couple days later, an NTSB spokesperson took to the
16:24
Speaker 1: news again to report that bad weather probably caused the crash.
16:28
Speaker 1: I've already touched on why that's problematic. The NTSB isn't
16:32
Speaker 1: supposed to speculate in situations like this. Essentially, before the
16:37
Speaker 1: wreckage had even stopped burning, news outlets all around the
16:41
Speaker 1: country were flooded with stories about how this crash was
16:45
Speaker 1: probably caused by freezing rain and snow, limited visibility icing
16:50
Speaker 1: on the wings, even though actual pilots in the area
16:54
Speaker 1: reported weather conditions that wildly conflicted with those claims, and
16:59
Speaker 1: there are lots of other details that put the weather
17:02
Speaker 1: explanation in doubt. For one thing, the type of plane
17:04
Speaker 1: Wellstone was traveling in is equipped with a de icing system,
17:08
Speaker 1: just like most other planes. If that system failed, a
17:11
Speaker 1: warning system should have alerted the pilots, at which point
17:16
Speaker 1: you'd expect they'd report some sort of issue that was
17:19
Speaker 1: impacting the flight. But no. Prior to the plane going down,
17:22
Speaker 1: there was no distress call, no indication from the pilots
17:26
Speaker 1: that things were going wrong. The last transmission from the
17:29
Speaker 1: cockpit was at ten eighteen am, and by all accounts,
17:33
Speaker 1: there was no evidence from the pilot's voice that there
17:35
Speaker 1: was any difficulty, no reported problems, no expressed concerns, and
17:40
Speaker 1: then two minutes later the plane went down. So obviously
17:44
Speaker 1: something changed drastically in the seconds after that final seemingly
17:50
Speaker 1: stress free communication from the pilots at ten eighteen am,
17:55
Speaker 1: because radar showed that at ten nineteen am the plane
17:59
Speaker 1: began drifting slightly to the south. The last appearance on
18:02
Speaker 1: radar was about two minutes later, when the plane was
18:06
Speaker 1: just north of the crash site's east side. Here's a
18:09
Speaker 1: quote from a local news report at the time, they
18:11
Speaker 1: were no longer in control of the aircraft. That will
18:14
Speaker 1: be the sixty four dollars question what occurred in the
18:18
Speaker 1: last few minutes that distracted them or caused them to
18:22
Speaker 1: wrestle control of the aircraft, something caused them at low
18:27
Speaker 1: altitude to veer off course. An article in the Duluth
18:30
Speaker 1: News Tribune shortly after the crash includes this quote. Veteran
18:34
Speaker 1: pilots remained puzzled by the plane's bizarre path during the
18:38
Speaker 1: final moments of its flight Friday, and theorized that a
18:42
Speaker 1: propeller failed, or that the plane hit a flock of
18:45
Speaker 1: geese as it approached the airport. Something dramatic happened, and
18:50
Speaker 1: whatever it was, it happened very quickly. That's a quote
18:53
Speaker 1: from Bob Peasley, a long time Northwest Airlines pilot. Except
18:57
Speaker 1: here's the thing. If that was the case, why no
19:00
Speaker 1: communication from the pilots. Why would they not report that
19:05
Speaker 1: to air traffic control? Why no distress signal? Ceasing all
19:09
Speaker 1: communications because your plane hit a flock of geese and
19:13
Speaker 1: lost to propeller is not how things would go. These
19:16
Speaker 1: were experienced pilots. If something happened that caused them to
19:21
Speaker 1: lose control of the flight, they would have communicated that
19:24
Speaker 1: whatever happened caused them to not only lose control but
19:28
Speaker 1: also communication and National Center for Atmospheric Research meteorologist Ben Bernstein,
19:35
Speaker 1: who studied radar and satellite imagery from the time of
19:39
Speaker 1: the crash, said this to NPR. Without actually going in
19:43
Speaker 1: there with an aircraft and putting probes and instruments in there,
19:46
Speaker 1: there's no way for us to know for certain how
19:49
Speaker 1: severe the conditions may have been. But looking at the
19:51
Speaker 1: data we did look at, it didn't appear to be
19:54
Speaker 1: a particularly severe situation. This case looked like something that
19:59
Speaker 1: wasn't really far out of the norm. And then there's
20:01
Speaker 1: the details about one of the pilots, Richard Conry, who
20:04
Speaker 1: we will get way, way way more into on a
20:08
Speaker 1: future episode, but for now, just know that he was
20:12
Speaker 1: known to be very averse to flying in inclement weather.
20:16
Speaker 1: He called the FAA twice before this flight happened. The
20:20
Speaker 1: first call, he was told he might encounter moderate icing,
20:24
Speaker 1: and at that point, according to the LA Times and
20:27
Speaker 1: other sources, he considered canceling the flight. But on that
20:30
Speaker 1: second call, he was told the wind was calm, there
20:33
Speaker 1: was light snow, and visibility was three miles just like
20:38
Speaker 1: those automated instruments at eveleth Airport reported at ten fourteen am,
20:43
Speaker 1: and his response to hearing that Okay, that's what I need.
20:47
Speaker 1: At least it's above my minimum here end quote. So
20:50
Speaker 1: he had a set of standards in terms of weather
20:53
Speaker 1: and he wouldn't fly if those weren't met. In this case,
20:56
Speaker 1: they weren't just met, they were exceeded. In other words words,
21:00
Speaker 1: the weather wasn't even sort of as bad as those
21:03
Speaker 1: initial reports made it out to be, which begs the
21:06
Speaker 1: question where was the NTSB getting this information which it
21:11
Speaker 1: then shared with the media in direct violation of their
21:15
Speaker 1: own policies as stated on their own website both then
21:21
Speaker 1: and now, And why did their only share the facts
21:25
Speaker 1: policy not applied to this particular airline disaster in the
21:29
Speaker 1: first place. Along those same lines, one question that has
21:34
Speaker 1: never been answered is why was the FBI even there,
21:39
Speaker 1: or at the very least, why were they there before
21:43
Speaker 1: the NTSB. That's a thing we have since confirmed. The
21:47
Speaker 1: FBI got there first, and to put it simply, that
21:51
Speaker 1: is not how it's supposed to work. The NTSB investigates first,
21:55
Speaker 1: and if they find evidence of malfeasance, theay alert the FBI.
22:00
Speaker 1: The FBI has no reason to be on the scene
22:03
Speaker 1: of a plane crash unless a crime has occurred. The
22:07
Speaker 1: authors of American Assassination, who we will also get into
22:11
Speaker 1: way more on a future episode, reached out to the
22:14
Speaker 1: NTSB about protocol for plane crash investigations, and here's what
22:19
Speaker 1: a spokesperson told them. For aviation incidents, no one is
22:23
Speaker 1: allowed to begin investigation of the scene without an NTSB
22:28
Speaker 1: member present, and they weren't just misspeaking. What that representative
22:31
Speaker 1: told the authors was perfectly in line with NTSB policy
22:36
Speaker 1: listed right on their website. In this case, the FBI
22:40
Speaker 1: arrived several hours prior to the NTSB, anywhere from five
22:45
Speaker 1: to eight hours prior, depending on who you believe, and
22:49
Speaker 1: that is an important detail that we'll talk about. Not
22:52
Speaker 1: only did they get there early, way before the NTSB,
22:56
Speaker 1: but they also immediately decided no sabotage was in Again,
23:01
Speaker 1: that is just not how these things work, even if
23:04
Speaker 1: the person who died is an elected official. And what
23:07
Speaker 1: the FBI essentially did by showing up before the NTSB
23:12
Speaker 1: in issuing this public statement that no sabotage was involved,
23:16
Speaker 1: that pretty much guaranteed that the ensuing NTSB investigation would
23:21
Speaker 1: be conducted under the thinking that there was no sabotage involved,
23:26
Speaker 1: meaning they never investigated if there was any sabotage involved.
23:31
Speaker 1: The FBI just broke protocol, showed up on the scene early,
23:36
Speaker 1: said nothing was a miss, and the investigation continued accordingly.
23:41
Speaker 1: And I don't know. I think it's something we could
23:43
Speaker 1: have looked into a little more. We'll get to a
23:45
Speaker 1: lot of reasons why as this series progresses, but it
23:48
Speaker 1: is worth asking why was it different this time? Why
23:52
Speaker 1: was the FBI allowed to show up and start investigating
23:57
Speaker 1: and what were they looking for? Could it be that
24:00
Speaker 1: cockpit voice recorder that Carol Carmody mentioned almost immediately upon
24:06
Speaker 1: addressing the media. I don't know. But another concern that's
24:09
Speaker 1: brought up in the book American Assassination is how did
24:13
Speaker 1: the FBI even get to the scene as quickly as
24:16
Speaker 1: they did. According to Saint Louis County Sheriff that's Saint
24:19
Speaker 1: Louis County in Minnesota, Rick Wahlberg, a team of FBI
24:23
Speaker 1: agents arrived on the scene around noon. The crash happened
24:26
Speaker 1: at ten twenty am. An alert went out around ten
24:29
Speaker 1: to fifty am. Gary Olman, the guy who took his
24:33
Speaker 1: own plane out to look for the crash scene, found
24:36
Speaker 1: it around eleven am. He directed emergency personnel to the
24:39
Speaker 1: scene around eleven fifteen am. The first formal announcement from
24:43
Speaker 1: the FAA that a crash had occurred went out at
24:46
Speaker 1: twelve ten PM. If Sheriff Rick Wahlberg is to be believed,
24:50
Speaker 1: the FBI showed up before the FAA even announced an
24:54
Speaker 1: accident had occurred. And here's the thing. The crash scene
24:57
Speaker 1: in Evelyth, Minnesota, is approximate only one hundred and seventy
25:01
Speaker 1: five miles from the FBI Field office in Minneapolis, and
25:06
Speaker 1: the plane crashed in a swamp area that could only
25:10
Speaker 1: be accessed via ATV, which would add even more time
25:14
Speaker 1: to the trip. The crash happened at ten twenty am,
25:17
Speaker 1: Sheriff Wahlberg says, the FBI showed up around noon. Even
25:21
Speaker 1: if the FBI left Minneapolis literally the second the plane
25:25
Speaker 1: went down at ten twenty am, arriving by noon would
25:29
Speaker 1: not be possible unless they had some reason to leave earlier.
25:33
Speaker 1: And even then, even if they did leave immediately at
25:37
Speaker 1: ten twenty am, who told them about the crash. Gary
25:40
Speaker 1: Olman was the first person to find the wreckage, and
25:43
Speaker 1: he didn't find it until eleven am, and he later
25:46
Speaker 1: confirmed that he definitely did not contact the FBI, because
25:49
Speaker 1: why would you. That's not how plane crash investigations work. Again,
25:54
Speaker 1: the NTSB has jurisdiction over that scene until it's determined
25:59
Speaker 1: a crime may have a heard. So who called the
26:02
Speaker 1: FBI and how did they get there so quickly? Why
26:05
Speaker 1: were they there at all? There's another witness who says
26:08
Speaker 1: the FBI showed up about two hours after the crash,
26:12
Speaker 1: which would have been closer to twelve thirty, But that's
26:14
Speaker 1: still a remarkably quick response time that would still require
26:18
Speaker 1: them to have heard about this way before anyone else.
26:21
Speaker 1: Gary Olman also said the FBI was there by no
26:24
Speaker 1: later than one pm. Someone filed a Freedom of Information
26:28
Speaker 1: Act request to obtain the FAA logs that would indicate
26:33
Speaker 1: who arrived on the scene and when, and guess what.
26:35
Speaker 1: The FAA response was that the records had been destroyed.
26:40
Speaker 1: Cool Cool Cool. In the book American Assassination, the authors
26:43
Speaker 1: trace what would have been the FBI's route to the
26:46
Speaker 1: crash scene, and here goes. The FBI office in Minneapolis
26:51
Speaker 1: is a seventeen minute drive from the airport, which airport
26:54
Speaker 1: doesn't matter whether they were going to Hubert H. Humphrey
26:57
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis or one of the smaller regional airports in
27:01
Speaker 1: Crystal or Eden Prairie, still a seventeen minute drive, and
27:05
Speaker 1: that's assuming there's light traffic. From there. They have to
27:08
Speaker 1: actually get on the plane, and let's assume that being
27:11
Speaker 1: the FBI and all, the plane was ready to go
27:13
Speaker 1: as soon as they got there and they weren't required
27:16
Speaker 1: to pass through any security checks. That makes for a
27:19
Speaker 1: very conservative estimate of ten minutes passing between the time
27:24
Speaker 1: they arrived at the airport and when they got on
27:26
Speaker 1: the plane. Once again, giving the benefit of the doubt
27:29
Speaker 1: in assuming things like this happened much faster for the FBI,
27:33
Speaker 1: Let's say the plane took ten minutes to take off
27:35
Speaker 1: from there. If you've ever flown, you know that's a
27:38
Speaker 1: very conservative estimate also, But still this is the FBI.
27:42
Speaker 1: So now we're at thirty seven minutes total for the
27:44
Speaker 1: trip so far, and we still have to fly. The
27:47
Speaker 1: flight from Minneapolis to Duluth takes about forty minutes. Another
27:51
Speaker 1: conservative estimate, let's say it took them five minutes to
27:54
Speaker 1: exit the plane. Now we're at eighty two minutes and
27:57
Speaker 1: we're just in Duluth, the fed stie. You'll have to
28:00
Speaker 1: get from there to the crash scene in Evelyth. To
28:03
Speaker 1: do that, they rented cars. Again, let's very conservatively say
28:08
Speaker 1: they spent another ten minutes renting and finding their cars.
28:12
Speaker 1: Even if everything was set up for him when they arrived,
28:15
Speaker 1: you still have to walk. You have to get off
28:16
Speaker 1: the plane and get in your car. They aren't teleporting
28:19
Speaker 1: to their cars, so ten minutes to rent the cars
28:22
Speaker 1: and drive away. The drive from Duluth to Evelyth is
28:25
Speaker 1: a little over an hour according to Google Maps, but
28:29
Speaker 1: the book once again gives the benefit of the doubt
28:31
Speaker 1: and says the drive would take fifty minutes from there,
28:35
Speaker 1: seeing as how the crash was in a remote area
28:37
Speaker 1: that could only be reached by ATV. Add another conservative
28:40
Speaker 1: ten minutes from arrival in Evelyth to make it to
28:44
Speaker 1: the scene. That puts the total trip time at two
28:47
Speaker 1: hours and thirty two minutes. So how did they get
28:51
Speaker 1: to the scene by noon? This crash happened at ten
28:55
Speaker 1: twenty am. Gary Olman didn't visually confirm it until eleven am.
28:59
Speaker 1: To get to the scene by noon, the FBI would
29:02
Speaker 1: have had to leave by nine to twenty eight am,
29:05
Speaker 1: which'll note is before the crash even happened. Even if
29:08
Speaker 1: the noon arrival time is wrong and they actually got
29:11
Speaker 1: there at one and witnesses have confirmed they were there
29:14
Speaker 1: no later than one, that means they still had to
29:17
Speaker 1: leave at ten twenty eight am, which is still minutes
29:22
Speaker 1: after the crash and well before anyone had even identified
29:26
Speaker 1: the crash scene or issued any official notifications that a
29:30
Speaker 1: crash had happened. FBI agent Paul McCabe eventually made a
29:34
Speaker 1: statement claiming that the FBI didn't arrive until three pm,
29:38
Speaker 1: but that not only conflicts with eyewitness accounts, including a
29:43
Speaker 1: local sheriff who were called seeing FBI agents from Minneapolis
29:48
Speaker 1: who he knew personally on the scene by one thirty pm.
29:52
Speaker 1: Not only does Paul McCabe's statement conflict with that, but
29:56
Speaker 1: his statement also conflicts with what the FBI now how
30:00
Speaker 1: says happened in terms of them arriving on the scene
30:04
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis, which we'll talk about way more when we
30:07
Speaker 1: dig into the FBI files that have since been declassified
30:11
Speaker 1: about this, but the short version is they argue that
30:16
Speaker 1: they sent FBI agents from Duluth directly to the scene
30:20
Speaker 1: and two problems with that. One the authors of this
30:24
Speaker 1: book asked about that at the time and were very
30:27
Speaker 1: clearly told no agents were sent from Duluth. Also, if
30:31
Speaker 1: the FBI didn't get there until three, why would it
30:35
Speaker 1: take agents so long to get there from Duluth. That's
30:38
Speaker 1: like an hour hour and a half drive from Duluth
30:41
Speaker 1: to Evelyth. We've just talked about that. So did they
30:45
Speaker 1: get there at three or did they get there around
30:49
Speaker 1: noon or one? But those agents were from Duluth because
30:54
Speaker 1: even then, one of the witnesses on the ground, a
30:57
Speaker 1: local sheriff, identified FBI agents from Minneapolis on the scene
31:03
Speaker 1: as early as one thirty pm. When asked for log
31:06
Speaker 1: records to show exactly who arrived and when, McCabe claimed
31:11
Speaker 1: those records didn't exist because they weren't important. They seem
31:15
Speaker 1: pretty important personally, But I don't crash airplanes or investigate
31:20
Speaker 1: airplane crashes, so what do I know? And remember, Carol
31:23
Speaker 1: Krmody said, the first order of business would be finding
31:27
Speaker 1: that cockpit voice recorder. While this plane wasn't required to
31:30
Speaker 1: carry one, because of the type of clientele this particular
31:34
Speaker 1: plane tended to service, they were often equipped with one anyway,
31:38
Speaker 1: at one point, Carmody clearly had reason to believe this
31:42
Speaker 1: flight had one, but it was never found. Is that
31:44
Speaker 1: why the FBI was there? What exactly was their role
31:48
Speaker 1: in this investigation? Even crazier In the NTSB's final report
31:53
Speaker 1: on the crash, which will probably be an episode all
31:56
Speaker 1: its own, they list the following agencies as having a
31:59
Speaker 1: city in the investigation. The FAA, Aviation Charter raytheon Aircraft Company,
32:06
Speaker 1: Heart Cell Propeller Company, Transportation Safety Board of Canada Pratt,
32:11
Speaker 1: and Whitney Canada. Do you notice anything weird about that list?
32:14
Speaker 1: If not, I won't keep you in suspense. The FBI
32:17
Speaker 1: is not on it. This despite FBI agent Paul McCabe
32:21
Speaker 1: announcing almost immediately after the crash that a team of
32:26
Speaker 1: FBI agents would be assisting the NTSB with the investigation.
32:31
Speaker 1: And also, we've investigated enough already to know it wasn't terrorism.
32:35
Speaker 1: So the authors of American assassination found that weird. So
32:38
Speaker 1: they reached out to a guy named Frank Hildrup, who
32:41
Speaker 1: worked at the NTSB at the time, and here's how
32:44
Speaker 1: that conversation went. Authors, Why was the FBI not listed
32:48
Speaker 1: as a party to the investigation? In the final NTSB
32:51
Speaker 1: report on the Wellstone case. Frank Hildrop, they were not
32:54
Speaker 1: a party to the investigation. Authors, Then what were they
32:58
Speaker 1: doing on the scene for eight hours prior to the
33:00
Speaker 1: arrival of the NTSB, Frank Hildrop. I can't say for sure,
33:04
Speaker 1: since I only took over on Monday, but maybe they
33:07
Speaker 1: were responding to the conspiracy theories. Authors. How could there
33:12
Speaker 1: have been conspiracy theories before the plane crashed sidebar? That's
33:17
Speaker 1: a very good question. Also, here's another interesting exchange from
33:21
Speaker 1: that conversation. Authors, One more question, Why no public hearing
33:26
Speaker 1: for this incident, Frank Hildrop. We only have hearings for
33:29
Speaker 1: high profile cases. What cases do not get more high
33:34
Speaker 1: profile than this? This is the official NTSB policy regarding
33:39
Speaker 1: that public hearings generally are held with regard to a
33:42
Speaker 1: major accident in which there is wide and sustained public interest.
33:47
Speaker 1: In what world is the crash of a sitting US
33:53
Speaker 1: senator who dies days before his election not high profile
33:58
Speaker 1: enough to justify a public hearing. That detail, when taken
34:03
Speaker 1: into account, along with the FBI being allowed to investigate first,
34:08
Speaker 1: and the NTSB willingly engaging in the exact kind of
34:12
Speaker 1: speculation their own policy seems to forbid ment. A lot
34:16
Speaker 1: of people understandably had a lot of questions about what
34:21
Speaker 1: really happened in the crash of Senator Paul Wellstone's plane,
34:25
Speaker 1: and I am one of those people. And we will
34:28
Speaker 1: dig into some of those questions and more of the
34:31
Speaker 1: weird details surrounding the death of Paul Wellstone on the
34:35
Speaker 1: next episode. I know this episode is a little shorter
34:40
Speaker 1: than what you're used to. I mean, we sometimes do
34:43
Speaker 1: episodes this short, but in this case it is by design.
34:46
Speaker 1: I feel like this information, which there's going to be
34:50
Speaker 1: a whole lot, is just easier to take in in
34:54
Speaker 1: bite sized portions as opposed to trying to slam that
34:57
Speaker 1: whole meal down at once. So things to take away
35:01
Speaker 1: from this episode today, Paul Wellstone's plane crashed, the NTSB
35:07
Speaker 1: handled the ensuing investigation very strangely, and we still have
35:12
Speaker 1: no idea why the FBI was on the scene at all.
35:15
Speaker 1: Those are some of the things we're going to get
35:17
Speaker 1: into on future episodes, and this is all building up
35:21
Speaker 1: to what is obviously the biggest question, which is was
35:25
Speaker 1: Paul Wellstone murdered? Stay tuned to find out. Until then,
35:29
Speaker 1: we're done for now I don't have anything to plug.
35:32
Speaker 1: Just go vote. Goodbye, everybody, we love you.